Chairman of the Presidential Amnesty
Programme, Kingsley Kuku, has faulted the claim by the National Leader of the
All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, that the programme is
constituting a drainpipe to the nation’s treasury.
Kuku said in a statement by PAP’s
Head, Media and Communications, Daniel Alabrah, on Wednesday that Tinubu’s
claim was not true, adding that the programme had helped to stabilise the
country’s security and economy.
He said Tinubu, a former governor of
Lagos State, was fond of politicising every policy of President Goodluck Jonathan
including the amnesty programme.
The statement quoted Kuku as saying
that, “It is regrettable that as a former governor of a state like Lagos, his
stock-in-trade is not only to politicise every policy or programme of the
President Goodluck Jonathan administration but also vilely tries to achieve
political capital through such less than salutary criticisms.”
Kuku challenged the APC leader to
show proof of his allegations against the amnesty programme.
The statement also read, “As a
security stabilisation programme for the hitherto restive Niger Delta, the
amnesty programme has achieved its objective ,through well thought-out
vocational training and formal education schemes for the former agitators in
the region.”
Tinubu had on Monday described the programme
as a drainpipe, adding that right from its inception, it had been corrupted and
hijacked by the President’s clique.
The former governor had said,
“The amnesty conceived from inception has been corrupted and hijacked by the
President’s clique. It is one of Nigeria’s drainpipes. A slush fund for
political expeditions and a conduit to siphon money to
the boys.”
However, Kuku in the statement argued
that, “Is it a programme that has trained no fewer than 16,000 Niger Delta
youths in three years that is a drain pipe?
“Is it a scheme through which
commercial pilots have been produced for Nigeria that is a drain pipe? What
about the delegates currently undergoing jet/type-rating training at the
Lufthansa Pilot Institute in Germany?
“Is it a programme that is producing
aviation professionals, aeronautical engineers, marine/maritime technicians and
technologists that is a conduit?”
He recalled that prior to the
commencement of the amnesty programme four years ago, violent agitations by
Niger Delta youths had crippled economic and social activities in the region,
which is the nation’s economic mainstay.
He said, “At the peak of the crisis
in 2009, Nigeria’s crude production fell from 2.2million barrels per day to as
low as 700,000 barrels per day.
“Today, following the proclamation
and implementation of the amnesty programme, crude production hovers between
2.4 million and 2.6 million barrels per day.”
Kuku said with the proclamation of
the amnesty programme, all the ex-agitators had since been “fully disarmed,
demobilised and are either currently in training or have since been trained.”
He said the step by the Federal Government
was aimed at adding to national Gross Domestic Product and improving the
families of Nigerians.”
“A total number of 30,000 persons are
enlisted in the Amnesty Programme. Of this number, over 16,000 have been
deployed to universities as well as vocational training centres within the
country and abroad for various skills acquisition programmes and formal
education,” he said.
Tags
Politics
Were are tired of crude being stolen and vandals sabotaging piplines by the same amnesty people.
ReplyDeleteJona is responsible for this chaos.
If you don't knw anything to say, quietly shut up! GEJ is not a perfect man, but he has done relatively better than his predecessors and all these people parading themselves as patriots. These people are wolves in sheeps clothings. Nigerians be WARNED!
ReplyDeleteDone better in what area? Universities nationwide closed down, now poltechnics. Insecurity and poverty with unemployment everywhere. It is not about GEJ as a person or a Niger Delta man, it is about performance. He is busy enriching ex millitants and u call that performance. We have to be realistic here.
DeleteMr olaopa....you r completely insensitive and ofcos sentimental...so u feel dis ur broda tinubu dat is talking rubbish is beta dan GEJ abi...a person that knows nothing about governance aside from breeding tugs..nobodi knew tinubu was a criminal till fashola came in...you shouldn't open his mouth to accuse some one of looting becos he is the king of looting, infact the same level with abacha and Ibb self
ReplyDeleteHmmmm GEJ stealing by now is greater than dat of Abacha n in terms of governance n performance Tinubu is far greater than him,GEJ is using dat programme to steal our money a lot n even enriching d militants who are even more dangerous than Lagos thugs,despise d stupid programme there are a lot of stealing of our crude oil n kindnaping every day in dat area so what is d improvement of security d criminal Kuku was talking abt.GEJ government is d worst dis nation has ever had b4 now
ReplyDeleteGEJ is the worst ever! The so called amnesty program is just to enrich the GEJ faithful. The people they claimed to be wasting our money on, in the name of Amnesty are the same set of people that go about vandalizing our embassy in abroad claiming that the government did not pay their school fees and even their hospital bills.
ReplyDeleteThe little ones that has been trained graduated to be Big Time crude oil thieves.
Let us be sincere with ourselves, Tinubu is right in his statement. They have enriched themselves and the real purpose of the program is forfeited. The boys are complaining of no payment, they even threaten to embark on strike actions.
Kingsley Kuku, is a know thief. Look @ his face like that of a militant.
S.O.R.
GEJ is the most successful president we have and cannot be compared with a thug like tinubu that forge canada certificate claiming he was a student,he lack experience of governance.
ReplyDeleteTinubu is a murderer he was the one that kill funsho williams the PDP contestant,tinubu knew funsho williams will win the election and lagos will be ruled by PDP,so he plot the death of funsho williams his own death will come very soon too cause he kill an innocent man,now this same criminal is coming under APC I PRAY HE WILL LOSE.
ReplyDeleteSo now the pains of the yorubas now is that former agitators are getting paid Shey? Lol! Its funny the way they think like kids.
ReplyDelete